Summary
Apple shipped 2.4 million smart speakers in the US market during 1Q21, edging out Google-branded smart speakers by about 100,000 shipments. This marks the first time that Apple has outsold Google, or Amazon for that matter, in smart speakers, according to the latest Smart Speaker Market Tracker from Omdia.
In the US, Apple’s market share of smart speaker shipments reached 17.8% during 1Q21, an increase of 9% year-over-year (YoY). Omdia estimated that the new HomePod Mini accounted for 91% of Apple’s smart speaker shipments in 1Q21.
Historic growth
Smart speaker growth continues to rise at historical levels, with the increases attributable to improved technologies, like natural language processing, as well as new features, like sleep tracking and swiveling screens. New models from brands like Apple also contributed to the meteoric 122% YoY increase in 1Q21 for the US market.
A total of 38 million smart speakers were shipped in seven key countries during 1Q21. These countries include the US, Germany, France, the UK, Australia, China, and South Korea. For these seven key countries, Amazon shipped the most during the first quarter, with 8.2 million shipments. Alibaba was second with 8.1 million, followed by Baidu, Xiaomi, Google, and Apple.
Although Apple sold more smart speakers than Google in the US during the first quarter, Apple remains far behind the wider Google Assistant platform for smart speakers. Omdia estimated the global installed base for smart speakers using Google Assistant reached 75 million in 2020, compared to about 10 million for Apple.
Second quarter turnaround?
The positive news for Apple may be short-lived though, as Omdia is anticipating strong adoption of the Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen), which will likely be enough for Google to sell more speakers than Apple during 2Q21. Nevertheless, Apple enthusiasts should be excited about the brand’s progress in smart speakers and wider smart home over the past year.
In terms of form factor, smart speakers with a display represented nearly 38% of all smart speakers shipped globally in 1Q21, while portable smart speakers equated 4% of all speaker shipments during the quarter.
Despite the big YoY increase in smart speakers, Omdia estimates many shipments, especially in the US, are going to existing users of smart speakers. This means there are fewer consumers that are new to the segment buying smart speakers than a few years ago.
For instance, in the US, about 67% of smart speaker sales were to existing smart speaker owners, in 2020. That’s nearly a 20% change from two years ago. Altering this trend will require innovative new use cases for smart speakers, so the latest Google Nest Hub (2nd Gen) is an interesting product that could lure fresh consumers to the category.
Figure 1: Smart speakers by model – Proportion of shipments during 1Q21 (US, UK, France, Germany, Australia, China, and South Korea)
Source: Omdia
Appendix
Further reading
Smart Speakers Market Tracker – 1Q21 Analysis (April 2021)
Smart Speakers Market Tracker – 1Q21 Database (April 2021)
Author
Blake Kozak, Senior Principal Analyst, Smart Home